March 24, 2015 - It Will All Work Out

What's up fam! It's been great to hear from all of you!

Congrats to Aubs and Brian on the Engagement! Can't wait to see my cardboard cutout in the wedding! 

Some highlights from my week!

Last Wednesday we got to go down to the Mormon Battalion with Ramon, Anabel and Pamela. They have been down there tons of times. They take missionaries a lot! They love that place.  It's pretty cool so I don't blame them! This time we went to watch Meet the Mormons (Conozca a los Mormones) with them. It's still good even the second time and in Spanish. Plus I found out that Glorious by David Archuleta comes in Spanish...blew my mind! Your homework for all of you is to find it, download it and send it to Elder Hansen ASAP! First one to send me both English and Spanish get's a special prize!!! It was sweet and we also talked about being a good example and sharing what we believe with others!

Thursday was super busy. We had weekly planning and then went out and I swear we were riding our bikes faster than the cars, and we knocked on like a million doors, I was pooped that night!

Friday we had District meeting. It's just Elder Quiñonez, Elder Brandner, Elder Blackley and I now. (I really miss Elder Takke). But that was super good! Then we went to Golden Spoon, which is a frozen yogurt place that hooks up missionaries for free once a week. I think It's owned by members. So that was fun. We went with Elder Takke and Cloes, who are two of the coolest Elders in the mission :) This afternoon we also taught a sick Lesson to Jesus Olaiz, and he said he would get baptized May 2 if he get's an answer that the church is true (which he will). We were stoked! 

Saturday was just a normal day, we went and tried to see a ton of people. Unfortunately a lot of people are busy on Saturdays. But we worked super hard and taught a few good lessons, especially to some less active members, which was really good! 

Sundays are the best. Church was great! We had 6 investigators there! Unfortunately Jesus didn't come through, but he will next week! 

Yesterday we had Interviews with President Schmitt! They went well. After that we went and taught Larry and Rosio. We have still been working really closely with them. I love that family! They are still awesome and we love them! Then  we taught this new kid Albert and he's so chill! He's like 29 and pretty interested and he took us to Jamba and we just chilled there for a while and talked about the Restoration. It was super laid back but still really powerful. That was awesome!

That's basically my week! Love you all! :) Hope you have a great week!

Elder Hansen

I meant to include this in the last email:

This was from President Hinckley and was included on the funeral program for his wife. 

It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.

It all works out. Don’t worry.

I say that to myself every morning.

It will all work out.

Put your trust in God,

and move forward with faith

and confidence in the future.

The Lord will not forsake us.

He will not forsake us.

If we will put our trust in Him,

if we will pray to Him,

if we will live worthy of His blessings,

He will hear our prayers.

March 17, 2015

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Hi! We have had a good week! I'm doing super good!

You guys take such good care of me! 

This week has been a good one! We had 4 investigators in church on Sunday! Which was super exciting!

Ramon, Anabel and Pamela. 

One of our favorite families! Ramon and Anabel have been investigating for years, and the only thing holding them back is a prior marriage in Mexico, but they're working on that. Pamela is their 8 year old daughter.  She's ready for baptism, but they are hoping to be baptized all together. We are praying that the issues will be taken care of quickly so they can get married and baptized soon. 

Yolanda

We have been teaching Yolanda for a while now, she has been to church like 6 weeks in a row, and she absolutely loves it! She has been fellowshiped by the ward and she loves the classes and she is ready to be baptized. We just have a few more things to teach her, and she should be ready to be baptized this month. We also have been teaching her daughter Alma, who is 18. She's super interested and has really loved what she has read in the Book of Mormon. She is doing an internship right now for the local hospital, so she hasn't been able to go to church, otherwise she would be preparing for baptism as well. 

We have found a lot of new people to teach this last week, which is awesome! We have also put a new focus on less active members, which is great for reactivation, but also helps us to find new people to teach! Because the people who have non-member friends are often less actives and recent converts! So we have been having a lot of success like that!

On Sunday night we had a Mission President's fireside, in San Diego which was a lot of fun! We got to sing a few songs and listen to the special musical numbers preformed by the missionaries. There is a lot of talent in our mission. Plus we got to hear from some recent converts and President and Sister Schmitt. The best part though was seeing all the Elders that I served with before. I saw Elder Carlson and Elder Browne (he sang). I also saw other elders from old Zones like Elder Stecklein and McChesney, who are both APs now, but I served with them in the Imperial Valley. Elder Stecklein was in my district and Elder McChesney was my ZL. plus others also. It was fun to see them! 

Have you heard anything new From Anna? She's so awesome! Her family is what I miss the most about Calexico By far!

Is there anything you guys need from me?

Love you!!!

Elder Hansen

March 10, 2015

Good afternoon family! This has been another awesome week! We are having a ton of fun out here and working hard!

I'll hit some highlights of this week. 

Yolanda has been continuing to read the BOM and pray, she's currently in 2 Nephi 20 something and loves it. Plus she loves the Gospel Principles class because we have an awesome teacher. Hermana Reyes, she is a beast teacher! I sit in there and take notes because the class is that good. And I know all of the investigators feel the spirit a ton! It's helped a lot with our investigators, they all have an awesome experience when they come to church because they always have an edifying experience in class. 

Marcos has taken a little step back, he's not sure about baptism but really the first step is to get him to church. I'm sure once he comes to church he will have the desire, but it's hard to get him to do much so we will be working on that with him this week. 

We have been helping Larry Gallegos and his family a lot lately. Last Monday we helped them clean up and get all of their stuff out of their house and into their motor home. Larry had been out of work recently and so they were struggling. But we promised him that if he came to church and strived to keep the commandments he would find a job. And he did. A good one too! So they shouldn't have to live in the motor home for too long, then they can move back into an apartment. His girlfriend Rosio was baptized a while ago. The good news is after everything he found a good job and things are looking up! It's a great family and we have had a ton of fun doing service and teaching them. Plus they have been coming back to church and really enjoying it!

Those are some highlights! We went golfing at the range today with a member-Alejandro. He's trying to go pro at golf, he's super good! So I'll throw in a pic from that and one of Larry and his family!  

March 3, 2015

We have had a really good week this past week. Elder Quiñonez and I have been continuing to grow as a companionship and have really been teaching in unity! It's been a lot of fun to change and grow, especially as he adjusts better and better into the missionary life. 

Today is the last day of this transfer, but we are both staying here in Chula Vista, which is exciting :) We should have some cool stuff coming up this transfer. 

Our most solid investigator is Yolanda. She's doing super awesome. We have been teaching her for about a month now and she's in 2 Nephi in the Book of Mormon and has come to church the last 4 weeks straight. She accepted a baptismal date, but wants to be very sure before the date that this is what the Lord wants her to do, even though she has definitely felt the spirit at church and when we come to teach her. Also her daughter Alma came and sat in on the last lesson and asked some very good questions, she seems to be really curious, but is super busy because she's a senior in High School and does cheer and volunteers at a hospital on Sundays, but hopefully we can get her to come to church one of these days! Anyway, we are just hoping that Yolanda realizes that she really has received her answer...so that she will go through with her date :) but we know she will come through!

We had a cool miracle this last Saturday. We had just started our comp fast after lunch, and we were leaving to go work for the day and we had planned to go see Marcos, a guy we had taught for a couple weeks, but wasn't super involved in our lessons and never kept commitments. But we went to stop by because he will always listen to us! Anyway, we stopped by and he was really embarrassed because he had been drinking beer (not like we really care, that happens all the time, usually they offer us some haha!) and he really opened up! He talked about how lonely he felt there in his apartment and how he felt bad that he smoked (like 1 cigarette a day...he can quit very easily I think) and how he hated that when he felt sad he just bought beer... and without us even asking he asked if baptism would help!! So we taught him a little bit more, and he wants to do whatever it takes to be baptized. He also pored out the rest of his beer right there in front of us! I'm super stoked about his desire to change! 

Those are pretty much the highlights this week. We got a new ward mission leader. Brother Reyes. Our old one was working a lot and didn't have as much time as he wanted to help us. But Brother Reyes recently moved into our ward and recently got married. They both served missions in Oakland San Fran mission. They are super cool and fired up! They both have two callings, but they do so much for the ward AND come out teaching with us all the time! 

I'm stoked I'm staying...things are really picking up! We have a bunch of other sick investigators too, but too much to write about...Plus I get to hang around with Elder Takke for another transfer...haha can't complain about that!! Only 1 person from our district is changing which is cool because we have a tight district! 

Love you guys! Love the work of the Lord!

With Love,

Elder Hansen